Iraq's First Printed Book

Abstract

The history of the first printing in Iraq is a skein composed of several Strands, as one would expect in a country of such ethnic and linguistic diversity. Moreover, Iraq's evolution from scribal culture to printing was similar to that of other countries in the Ottoman Empire. One common characeristic of printing history in the Ottoman lands was the false Start, that is, the hiatus of decades between the introduction of printing and the full, practical exploitation of the new technology. A second frequently encountered feature was the early preference for lithography over typography. A third characteristic was the priority of ethnic, linguistic or religious minorities in introducing and bringing about the spread of the printing press. Because the study of printing history in Iraq and many other Middle Eastern countries is in its infancy, the first order of business is to establish the landmarks of printing so that the place of the press in the social and cultural history of the region can be assessed.